Trump DOJ Under Investigation for How It Handled Epstein Files

The Department of Justice is auditing itself over the chaotic rollout of the Jeffrey Epstein files, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was pushed through Congress by an eclectic bipartisan group even after Donald Trump dismissed it as a “hoax,” made millions of government files on the convicted sex trafficker publically available.

But the slow, sloppy, and still incomplete rollout of the files led to serious questions about what the hell the Department of Justice was doing under then–Attorney General Pam Bondi. The DOJ continues to face accusations it is covering up evidence of Trump’s involvement with Epstein.

Now the department’s Inspector General’s Office is looking into the matter, particularly “how the department collected, reviewed and redacted materials in preparation for their release.”

The first issue relating to the rollout of the files is that the DOJ blew past the 30-day deadline it was given by Congress in November, claiming it needed more time as it had coincidentally discovered more records.

Bondi was also caught lying about the files. She bragged to Fox News in February 2025 that Epstein’s client list was “on her desk”—only for the DOJ to backtrack months later and say the list never existed.

In January, the department released approximately three million files. Great—except nearly 100 victims’ names and nude pictures were mistakenly left visible, while information that might have actually led to some justice being done was redacted. The DOJ withdrew thousands of the files, vaguely blaming the mistake on “technical or human error.” (When an individual releases dozens of nude photos of someone without consent, they go to jail. When Trump’s DOJ does it, no one is even fired!)

The aftermath of the rollout has also been frustrating. No one has been arrested in the U.S. for involvement in Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring, even with all the documents outlining his crimes as potential evidence. There are also 2.5 million files that have not yet been released, meaning tons of information about Epstein’s circle is still being withheld from the public.

In a perfect world, this audit would determine what went wrong and be the first step to a full release of the files. But the fact that the review is coming from inside the DOJ gives one little hope that anything will change within the department. Trump has also fired or demoted over 20 inspectors general during his second term, greatly limiting who is able to watch over his corrupt government.

President Donald Trump professes to be tough on crime, yet his administration has let go over 4,000 federal law enforcement employees.

Reuters, citing records it obtained from the Department of Justice’s management unit through the Freedom of Information Act, reports that several agencies have significantly cut their workforce. The FBI has lost 7 percent of its employees, 2,600 in all, since the 2024 fiscal year, while the Drug Enforcement Administration has lost about 6 percent. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has lost 14 percent of its employees.

The DOJ division that handles intelligence and terrorism, the National Security Division, has lost 38 percent of its workers, and told Congress in its last budget request that it had “unprecedented personnel constraints.”

Even the Bureau of Prisons hasn’t been spared: It lost 6 percent of its workforce, or 2,200 employees, with no reduction in the prison population. The bureau now has a staffing crisis, and has been forced to use teachers and nurses as prison guards, while leaving other posts empty.

“The administration talks a big game when it comes to crime and terrorism, but the fact ​that it’s hollowing out agencies tasked with addressing them shows that they don’t stand behind their words,” Stacey Young, a former DOJ lawyer, told Reuters. She now leads Justice Connection, a group that offers support to departing DOJ staff.

In addition to having fewer employees, many of these agencies have been tasked with assisting the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda instead of conducting their agency’s specific duties. Drug prosecutions are at their lowest levels in over 20 years. Meanwhile, the budget for the Department of Homeland Security has gone up by billions, with ICE becoming the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in U.S. history.

On Thursday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was once again confronted with his elaborate lie regarding his close personal and business relationship with sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. His answer was pathetic.

“In October, you told the New York Post with colorful narration that the last time you saw Jeffrey Epstein was in 2005 when you took a tour of his house, which happened to be right next door to yours,” Democratic Representative Madeleine Dean said during Lutnick’s hearing before the House Appropriations Committee. “You claimed you and your wife were ‘so grossed out’ by this disgusting person, you swore you would never go back. But when the Epstein files came out, it turned out that was a lie.… You had visited Epstein’s private island in 2012, four years after Epstein pled guilty [to] soliciting a minor for prostitution and was labeled a sex offender. You brought along your wife, your kids, your nannies to the predator’s island.”

Dean also noted that just days after that 2012 island visit, Lutnick and Epstein signed a business deal together as “coinvestors in a digital advertising company,” collaborating on it until 2018.

“Secertary Lutnick, why did you lie to the New York Post about your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein?” Dean asked.

Lutnick began to offer a canned nonanswer, but his microphone was not turned on.

“Please don’t repeat your gracious offer to speak behind closed doors, not under oath, without the ability of this committee to question you,” Dean quipped. “The American people want to know. Why did you lie about your relationship with Epstein?”

Lutnick offered the canned nonanswer again, looking a bit uncomfortable.

“The House Oversight Committee and I have agreed—”

That was quickly shot down by Dean. “Reclaiming my time, I do not accept that answer,” she said. “We’ve heard that one.… Please answer the question. Why did you lie to the Post?”

“I have voluntarily agreed to spend the time and talk about it,” Lutnick replied, as if he was doing Dean some favor by offering to speak off the record about the massive, damning lie he told.

“Let the record reflect you’re dodging the question,” Dean replied. “The cover-up continues.”

Lutnick also refused to answer the other two direct questions Dean asked him about his connection to Epstein—particularly his financial connections, and whether President Trump was “concerned” about the commerce secretary’s chummy relationship with perhaps the most infamous predator of the century. It’s an absolute embarrassment that he is still operating in full capacity as commerce secretary.

The Trump administration is reupping its efforts to denaturalize U.S. citizens it sees as unworthy.

The New York Times reported Thursday that the Department of Justice has named 384 foreign-born Americans from whom it plans to revoke citizenship. The DOJ also told civil litigators to prepare to file suit against the individuals in 39 regional attorneys’ offices.

While 384 people is a small number compared to the more than 818,000 who became American citizens in 2024, the DOJ’s new focus on denaturalizations sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to new citizens having their passports revoked en masse in the future.

Naturalized residents who commit crimes, or who are found to have received citizenship illegally—such as through a fake marriage—can have their status taken away. While it is legal for the government to revoke someone’s citizenship, it is typically rare, happening an average of 11 times per year between 1990 and 2017. Those numbers then went up slightly after Donald Trump took office for the first time, to about 15 times a year.

But this year, the government has looked to denaturalize Americans at a level not seen since the early nineteenth century, as Trump wages war against the melting pot. The Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security was told earlier this year to find more than 200 denaturalization cases a month for the DOJ to prosecute.

The good news for naturalized citizens is that, besides being unable to run for president, they have essentially the same rights and protections as those born in the U.S. The government must prove its case for denaturalization through either a civil or criminal trial, a legal process that the Times calls “challenging and time-consuming.” Each person can also appeal their decision, meaning the government’s efforts will further tax an already overwhelmed court system full of immigration cases.

While the Trump administration has spoken about only denaturalizing those who have committed crimes or fraud, the president’s racist rhetoric and moves such as classifying antifa as a terrorist organization have created some concern that Trump could use denaturalization as a weapon against certain groups of immigrants.

“The government has used this power in the past to target people it views as political opponents,” Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia, told the Times.

Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of the Navy has said some crazy things.

The Pentagon confirmed that failed congressional candidate and current undersecretary of the Navy Hung Cao would be replacing John Phelan, who was abruptly fired on Wednesday. It’s an appalling move, given that Cao once made a poor joke about the KKK in an interview with Steve Bannon.

“I know I’ll be attacked by the left, and call me a white supremacist, but I have one ask for them, it’s just than when you give my hood, make sure it’s got the little slits and not the circles so I can see better,” Cao said on Real America’s Voice during his failed 2024 campaign for Senate.

Cao has also claimed in multiple interviews that he was “shot at” and “blown up” while serving in the Navy, and has “scars,” describing himself as “100% disabled,” but his service record doesn’t show him receiving a Purple Heart, which is given to service members who have been seriously injured by enemy fire, or the Navy’s Combat Action Ribbon. When USA Today asked him about his service record in 2024, he issued an angry statement.

“I want to give you all a window into what it’s like being a combat veteran who had the gall to run for public office against a career politician. Any veteran will read this with the same disgust. Imagine being asked to provide documentation of the dates and times Al Qaeda shot at you. Imagine being asked, if you’re a disabled veteran, why don’t you have a Purple Heart?” Cao posted.

In a 2023 interview with a right-wing pastor, Sean Feucht, Cao claimed that witchcraft was occurring in California.

“There’s a place in Monterey, California, called Lover’s Point,” Cao said. “The original name was ‘Lovers of Christ Point,’ but now it’s become—they took out the ‘Christ,’ it’s Lover’s Point, and it’s really—Monterey’s a very dark place now, a lot of witchcraft, and the Wiccan community has really taken over there,” Cao said. “We can’t let that happen in Virginia.”

In the same interview, Cao joked that “I’m African American because I grew up in Africa too,” referring to when his family lived in Niger when they worked for USAID.

All of this was known during Cao’s confirmation hearings as Navy undersecretary last year, and the Senate still voted to confirm his nomination. Now he’ll be in charge of the military branch in the midst of a war.